Subject: [MA Regionals 7th] BalabonBlack Date: Wed, 20 May 1998 15:15:56 -0400 From: Martin_Lund@bchigh.edu (Martin Lund) To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Greetings, I'm writing after finally getting an E-Mail address, qualifying for Nationals, and finishing studies for A.P. classes. All in all its been a pretty stretched couple of months. On Saturday I placed 7th at the MA regional championships in Milis (of all the places to be). It was a good day for Your Move Games players and decks. Four of us made top 8 (Chris Manning has probably already said as much). Three were playing Darwin Kastle's deck (see Chris's post). I won my spot with the version of Balabon Black listed below. I won't list every game, just general highlights (and screw ups) of the tourney. Balabon Black (My Version) 4x Funeral Charm (sooo much better than edict) 4x Sacromancy (spent lotsa time in the SB) 4x Black Knight 4X Knight of Stromgald 4x Dauthi Slayer 4x Dauthi Horror 4x Unholy Strength (sooo much better than Bad Moon) 4x Dark Ritual 4x Erg Raiders 3x Cursed Scroll (that's right not 4, but three!) 2x Kaerivic's Spite 19x Swamp Sideboard (ala Kastle) 4x Wall of Souls 4x Gloom 3x Terror 4x Bottomless Pit (MVP!) This entire affair began a few weeks ago right after PTNY. I'd decided to build a deck that would deal with a format full of Tradewind Rider, Wall of Blosoms, and Combo. I had built a R/B Song of BloodPet deck and was working on some sort of mono-black necrotaal based control deck involving some trash picking (graveyard manipulation). I was getting frustrated at the inconstitancy in the amazingly fast and threatening Song deck, and the black deck was far too slow. I brought my prototypes and ideas to my friend Ray Fucillo and after school I'd go to Your Move Games when I could spare the time. I received an amazing amount of constructive feedback from Darwin, Chris, and several others. As I tried to combine the mono-black evasion factor with the speed of the Song deck, Darwin gave me the news about Mark Balabon's new deck, and some improvements he'd been suggesting. Well, in the space of an hour of brainstorming between myself, Darwin, and the Your Move regulars, we had this deck in fine form. The inclusion of the key funeral charm was made that day, as was the sideboard that I would play at regionals. I can not claim any more credit for deck building than any other person at Your Move (and owe some thanks to Darwin and Mark). The night before the championships was the typical pretourney deck test at Ray's house. Prospbloom, Type II Alatar, Sligh, and more all few across the table as the hours gave way to 3:00 AM. I went to bed still concerned about the hastle our associate Jeff Posner had been giving us with his insane R/B Land Destruction/Fatty Deck. Still I was right to claim I'd never play anything like it (thank God). The next morning was pick up Jeff Posner and Ben Medd with Ray and head in to Milis. It was out of the way for sure, but the country club was a great place to be. The entire tournement benifited from the relatively open-air environment of our building, and the lawn let people get away from eachother and relax, and magic players do tend to get tense during championships. The deck itself was balanced perfectly to avoid manascrew and flood as much as humanly possible, and its top deck potention was certainly good. Ray and Ben played it as well, though swapping a scroll in for a Spite. I played against a good field. Highlights include: Match 1 vs. MonoGreen Stomp Game 3 dropped two wall of souls and first strike witha shadow. My opponent looks at his rogue elephants and stampeding wildabeasts, then at my walls. Back at the greens. Reads the wall. Puts the wall down, sighs, and good-naturedly concedes/ Match 3 vs. WW w/ Firestorm, Wall of Blossoms, and Monkey Game 3 I play 1st. Drop turn 3 + 4 previously unseen glooms. Beatdown begins, contested really only by firestorm. Finally my opponent is at 8, and I'm down to one card in hand. Some land no scroll, no creature. My opponent lays his 8th land and taps them all (including 3 Cities of Brass) to Disenchant a gloom. In responce I play Spite, fizzeling the Dis' and making him lose 5 life (remember those 3 city hits?) Game. Match 4 vs. Aaron Laudry (4-0) 5CKastle Game one he fries his gemstone mine to firstorm, pitching everything but Armeggedon. He has no more white. He had his only reflecting pool untapped. I play a creature, seeing only black, blue, and green showing, I feel moderately safe. Thusly I ignore the fact he has only one card left even though my last card is funeral charm. Double Botched. I still squeek it out. Game 3 is all about bottomless pit. It's gas. That's it. That my entire play against 5CKastle besides charmin' every bird in sight and playing land/creature conservation when I can. Living Death never gets off. Match 5 vs Jamie Wakefield (5-0) MonoRed Control! Jamie has to be the simply best sport in the entirety of Magic. He was such a nice guy whether he one or lost. He didn't say a single negative thing when I topped scroll on my first move of game one's topdeck race (lands, no creatures, no cards, both players). The deck confused the hell out of me the first two games. The third game had me finally realize the dangers of Bogardan Phoenix and Jokuhaups. I go nuts and side in 4 Bottomless Pits. 1st turn pit thwarts Phoenix and keeps his lands under 6. Beatdown goes the distance. Match 6 vs. Ben Farkas (6-0) RedBurn/Blue counter+whispers This was the worst match-up I could ever have pulled. He's got my number with Earthquake, Shock, Incinerate, and Shard Phoenix (Run Awayyy!). I manage some scroll clean up in game one. No such luck game 2. Shatter and Disk wreck my day. Games 3 1st turn pit pulls from him: land, land, land (augh!), Disk (yes). Turn four he played the other disk if his hand. Turn 5, launches burn to empty hand, disk whipes out my army and pit. Topdeck skills ... Pit #2! Race the beatdown for the win. At 6-0 int.draw with Bergoli. At 6-0-1 with Jeff Madgid. Whats that? Would I like to go too Sommerville for another 2 hrs after 1 AM to fight over who gets to a puts a special title on their name? How about Bickfords instead? Whatever. See you at Nations. I don't believe in Props/Slops. Just thanks to Your Move Games crew (Darwin, Chris, Tony, Moses, Mike ...). And to Ray, Jeff, + Ben. Realism is seeing that the world is insane, and so are you. Enjoy the questions, but don't expect answers Marty Lund lund@bchigh.edu This message sent using the FirstClass SMTP/NNTP Gateway for Mac OS.